102. Is Pinterest Marketing Worth It? How to Use Pinterest as an Online Service Provider

Felicia Pugh: 00:00:00

Welcome to episode 102 of the Mom CEO Suite podcast.

Felicia Pugh: 00:00:04

Is Pinterest Marketing Worth how to use Pinterest as an online service provider?

Felicia Pugh: 00:00:09

So in the previous episode I shared that I'm adding Pinterest to my marketing strategy.

Felicia Pugh: 00:00:13

And so today I'm having a chat with Michelle Stevens who is a Pinterest coach, marketer and manager and she was recently named by Tailwind as a top Pinterest influencer.

Felicia Pugh: 00:00:25

I had so many questions for Michelle and she gives us so much insight into how to use Pinterest as an online service provider.

Felicia Pugh: 00:00:31

Everything from boards, analytics and strategy to best practices and habits to avoid.

Felicia Pugh: 00:00:37

If you are looking for new ways to market without social media, you'll enjoy this episode.

Felicia Pugh: 00:00:42

Stay tuned.

Felicia Pugh: 00:00:43

Hey friend.

Felicia Pugh: 00:00:44

Welcome to the Mom CEO Suite podcast where faith, family and business come together.

Felicia Pugh: 00:00:50

I'm your host, Felicia Pugh, Christian wife, mom of two and life and business system strategist for mom entrepreneurs.

Felicia Pugh: 00:00:59

With over 10 years of experience working behind the scenes of businesses and mental industries and as a work from home mompreneur, I'm here to share my personal journey and practical strategies to help you design systems that bring peace to your work and home life.

Felicia Pugh: 00:01:15

While many strive for balance, I believe it's harmony, an integrated flow that works for you, that truly sustains.

Felicia Pugh: 00:01:22

Together, we'll explore how to grow your service based business in a way that is sustainable and keeps your family at the heart of it all.

Felicia Pugh: 00:01:29

Plus hear real life stories and expertise from other mompreneurs who are walking the same path.

Felicia Pugh: 00:01:35

Motherhood gets hard, entrepreneurship gets hard.

Felicia Pugh: 00:01:39

But together we can do hard things.

Felicia Pugh: 00:01:43

Welcome to the suite.

Felicia Pugh: 00:01:47

All right.

Felicia Pugh: 00:01:47

Hey friends, welcome to another episode.

Felicia Pugh: 00:01:49

So excited to be here with you again today.

Felicia Pugh: 00:01:52

Thank you for joining us.

Felicia Pugh: 00:01:53

And today in the suite, we have with us Michelle Stevens.

Felicia Pugh: 00:01:56

And Michelle, she is a lover of all things Pinterest and she finds joy in helping people grow their business through Pinterest.

Felicia Pugh: 00:02:03

In her own words, she's kind of a nerd when it comes to all things SEO and she loves doing the research that goes along with it.

Felicia Pugh: 00:02:09

Her goal is to help online business owners, bloggers, coaches and e commerce sellers learn how to use Pinterest to double their traffic to their website so they can make more money.

Felicia Pugh: 00:02:21

She believes that Pinterest can be a game changer in business and she has a variety of ways that she can service you and support you with your Pinterest.

Felicia Pugh: 00:02:30

So Michelle, welcome to the suite.

Felicia Pugh: 00:02:32

How are you today?

Michelle Stevens: 00:02:33

I'm doing great.

Michelle Stevens: 00:02:34

How are you doing?

Felicia Pugh: 00:02:35

I am great.

Felicia Pugh: 00:02:36

It is Friday, so you Know, that's always a plus.

Felicia Pugh: 00:02:38

So glad to have you here today.

Michelle Stevens: 00:02:41

Absolutely.

Michelle Stevens: 00:02:42

I'm glad to be here.

Michelle Stevens: 00:02:42

I'm really excited.

Felicia Pugh: 00:02:44

Yeah.

Felicia Pugh: 00:02:45

So let's just hop right in.

Felicia Pugh: 00:02:46

You know, this is the mom CEO suite.

Felicia Pugh: 00:02:49

So for you at this intersection of motherhood and entrepreneurship, you know what's going well for you right now.

Felicia Pugh: 00:02:55

And then also talk about something that might be a little bit challenging.

Michelle Stevens: 00:03:00

So what's going really well?

Michelle Stevens: 00:03:01

My business is starting to take off a little bit more than it had been for a while.

Michelle Stevens: 00:03:06

You know how it is when you're starting something new.

Michelle Stevens: 00:03:07

It takes a little bit to get going.

Michelle Stevens: 00:03:09

But I have amazing clients right now that I'm working with and that's really enjoyable.

Michelle Stevens: 00:03:14

I'm also building out a course, so that's super exciting.

Michelle Stevens: 00:03:18

I think the biggest challenge for me right now is just time.

Michelle Stevens: 00:03:21

You know how it is when you're a mom.

Michelle Stevens: 00:03:23

I mean, I also still work a corporate 9 to 5, so building my business with the 9 to 5 and the 5 year old has been challenging.

Michelle Stevens: 00:03:32

So, yeah, it's getting.

Michelle Stevens: 00:03:34

Getting everything done, really.

Michelle Stevens: 00:03:36

Being smart with my time is really key.

Felicia Pugh: 00:03:39

I'm really glad you mentioned that because that is something I think every mother, even if you're not an entrepreneur, you feel like you're strapped for time.

Felicia Pugh: 00:03:47

Right.

Felicia Pugh: 00:03:47

So how are you kind of navigating that?

Felicia Pugh: 00:03:49

What are some things that you're doing to just kind of maximize your time or get you through it?

Felicia Pugh: 00:03:53

So it's a little bit smoother.

Michelle Stevens: 00:03:55

Yeah.

Michelle Stevens: 00:03:56

So for me, the main thing is I really have to plan my days.

Michelle Stevens: 00:04:00

And they never go exactly as you plan, but when you have a plan, at least you have kind of an outline.

Michelle Stevens: 00:04:07

So for me, you know, a big chunk of my day is working my corporate job.

Michelle Stevens: 00:04:12

And then after I get done, I make sure that I spend some time with my son and I work from home.

Michelle Stevens: 00:04:17

So thankfully I see him all day still.

Michelle Stevens: 00:04:19

But then I really have to really mark what clients I'm working on that day.

Michelle Stevens: 00:04:24

I have to set aside time to work on my own business and market myself.

Michelle Stevens: 00:04:28

Um, so really, you know, that's why Pinterest is great.

Michelle Stevens: 00:04:32

Cause I can do it all at once and then schedule it out and I don't have to talk to anybody afterwards.

Michelle Stevens: 00:04:37

Um, but it really.

Michelle Stevens: 00:04:39

Yeah, it's really all about just scheduling out that time and making sure that I have a plan.

Michelle Stevens: 00:04:43

As soon as I close my laptop for work, I know exactly what I'm doing the rest of the night.

Felicia Pugh: 00:04:48

I love that.

Felicia Pugh: 00:04:49

And anybody who listens to the podcast you know, I'm a planner, I'm an organizer.

Felicia Pugh: 00:04:53

I love all those things.

Felicia Pugh: 00:04:54

So I love that you're implementing that.

Felicia Pugh: 00:04:56

But you gave a great segue about why you love Pinterest, and it helps you just kind of manage your time better and be present in your different roles.

Felicia Pugh: 00:05:04

So can you talk to us about what is Pinterest?

Felicia Pugh: 00:05:07

Some people might not really know what it is yet, but just give us a brief overview of what Pinterest is, how it works, and then why you choose Pinterest as a priority over some other platforms for your business.

Felicia Pugh: 00:05:20

Marketing.

Michelle Stevens: 00:05:21

Absolutely.

Michelle Stevens: 00:05:22

So a lot of people, like, if they do know of Pinterest, they know how to use Pinterest, right?

Michelle Stevens: 00:05:26

Like, they go.

Michelle Stevens: 00:05:27

They find beautiful things, they pin them to their boards, and that's how they use Pinterest.

Michelle Stevens: 00:05:31

But as a business owner, you can really leverage the platform.

Michelle Stevens: 00:05:34

It's a visual search engine, so it works a lot more like YouTube or Google than it does like Instagram or Facebook.

Michelle Stevens: 00:05:41

So as a business owner, knowing that, you have to leverage the SEO with Pinterest.

Michelle Stevens: 00:05:47

But what's so great about the platform is because it's searchable, your content lives for so much longer.

Michelle Stevens: 00:05:53

So I don't know about you, but I have spent, like, an hour and a half making a reel, and I get, like, 200 views, and then it dies, and then nothing ever happens.

Michelle Stevens: 00:06:01

I mean, maybe that's just me, but it happens.

Michelle Stevens: 00:06:03

And on Pinterest, the nice thing is, is you can post that.

Michelle Stevens: 00:06:07

Maybe it doesn't do great the first month, but it could get picked back up at six months later and go viral for you.

Michelle Stevens: 00:06:12

So it's never something like, I tell people, you never have to delete an old pin.

Michelle Stevens: 00:06:16

It could pick up at any time and take off for you.

Michelle Stevens: 00:06:19

So because it's searchable, your content just lasts so much longer on there.

Michelle Stevens: 00:06:24

And for me, that's huge because I need that staying power.

Michelle Stevens: 00:06:30

Um, it does take a little bit longer.

Michelle Stevens: 00:06:32

You're not gonna see, like, immediate results from Pinterest, but it builds.

Michelle Stevens: 00:06:36

So the more you're pinning, the more you're consistent with the platform, the more you're gonna see the results.

Felicia Pugh: 00:06:42

I love that.

Felicia Pugh: 00:06:43

And before we started, I told Michelle that I was starting to tap into Pinterest for my own business.

Felicia Pugh: 00:06:49

And that's one of the things that drew me to it.

Felicia Pugh: 00:06:52

Just the searchability of it and the evergreen nature.

Felicia Pugh: 00:06:55

Like you said, at any time, something that you pinned a year or so ago could pick up.

Felicia Pugh: 00:07:01

And so as a mom, that's really.

Felicia Pugh: 00:07:04

We're all strapped for time like we already talked about.

Felicia Pugh: 00:07:06

Right.

Felicia Pugh: 00:07:07

And so I felt like with Instagram, because I was on there, that things just don't last and people don't see it and people are not necessarily searching for those things on Instagram.

Felicia Pugh: 00:07:18

So that's one of the things that I love about Pinterest.

Felicia Pugh: 00:07:21

So now you talked about how if people know about Pinterest, they kind of know it from a user perspective.

Felicia Pugh: 00:07:28

I know for me it was like, oh, I'm going to go look for some recipes or for some, like, interior design stuff on Pinterest.

Felicia Pugh: 00:07:35

But for somebody who is like a service provider, we have a lot of service providers, or they might have digital products who listen to the podcast.

Felicia Pugh: 00:07:43

What's a simple strategy that they can use?

Felicia Pugh: 00:07:46

You talked about getting leads, more traffic to their website.

Felicia Pugh: 00:07:49

So what's a simple strategy that they can use to either generate more leads or just drive more traffic to their website?

Michelle Stevens: 00:07:57

Yeah, so I love this question.

Michelle Stevens: 00:07:59

So I'm a service provider myself, so I use Pinterest in this way.

Michelle Stevens: 00:08:03

Exactly.

Michelle Stevens: 00:08:04

So one of the best things you can do for yourself just overall, long term, is make sure that you are tracking all your landing pages, blogs, YouTube episodes, podcasts, all of that.

Michelle Stevens: 00:08:15

It's going to help you so much over time, like knowing where all your content is at.

Michelle Stevens: 00:08:19

But what I do is I have that content library and then every month I take a spreadsheet and I decide what URLs I'm going to promote.

Michelle Stevens: 00:08:28

So if you want to go crazy on Pinterest, you can do one a day.

Michelle Stevens: 00:08:32

If you want to do 15amonth, you know, whatever, how many, however many URLs you want to take on.

Michelle Stevens: 00:08:39

Start slow at first because you don't want to overwhelm yourself.

Michelle Stevens: 00:08:42

But say you're going to take 15 URLs, then I take those and I create three to five different pins for each URL and then title and description.

Michelle Stevens: 00:08:53

And then I schedule those all out either in the native scheduler or I schedule them out in like Tailwind or Metricool or whatever.

Michelle Stevens: 00:09:01

Whatever scheduler you have, you can use.

Michelle Stevens: 00:09:04

So when you schedule those out, that can all be done in just like a few hours every month.

Michelle Stevens: 00:09:09

And you can have your entire month planned, everything pinned, and you're going to have a decent amount of pins.

Michelle Stevens: 00:09:14

When you're doing that now, you don't have to do five images.

Michelle Stevens: 00:09:16

You could do one if you want.

Michelle Stevens: 00:09:18

That's perfectly okay.

Michelle Stevens: 00:09:20

I always tell people, start small and work in two more because that'll kind of Build your Pinterest muscle and you're not overwhelming yourself all at once.

Michelle Stevens: 00:09:29

But I think what a lot of people that our service providers do is they forget how many things you can actually pin.

Michelle Stevens: 00:09:35

So a lot of people think blogs, right?

Michelle Stevens: 00:09:38

And those, those are wonderful to post, but you can pin your YouTube videos, you can pin your podcast episodes, you can pin low ticket digital products, high ticket products, you can pin your services landing pages, you can pin so many different things.

Michelle Stevens: 00:09:55

If it has a URL you can pin to it.

Michelle Stevens: 00:09:57

So putting that in a plan and really just having it intentional is really going to set you apart because a lot of people will just kind of haphazardly post.

Michelle Stevens: 00:10:07

And if you have a consistent schedule, it's just, it makes it so much better.

Michelle Stevens: 00:10:10

Pinterest starts to trust that you're giving it fresh content all the time and it will start pushing your content more.

Felicia Pugh: 00:10:17

That's so interesting.

Felicia Pugh: 00:10:18

So you mentioned about doing three to five.

Felicia Pugh: 00:10:21

I know you said start, start slow, but you mentioned the three to five pins per link or per URL, right?

Felicia Pugh: 00:10:30

So is there any particular reason why that's better?

Felicia Pugh: 00:10:33

Is it just getting more traffic to it or what's like the reasoning behind.

Michelle Stevens: 00:10:37

I like to have multiple pins per URL and I will repeat those after a few months and do the same ones again.

Michelle Stevens: 00:10:43

Because when you think about how many pins are on Pinterest, you want to give yourself as many shots as you can, right?

Michelle Stevens: 00:10:48

Like you're just putting your little breadcrumbs out on Pinterest.

Michelle Stevens: 00:10:50

So the more you can do, the better.

Michelle Stevens: 00:10:52

We don't want to spam one URL and post 25 at the same link in one day.

Michelle Stevens: 00:10:58

So you want to spread it out.

Michelle Stevens: 00:11:00

Usually when I, how I spread it out is I'll do one of the different, so one of the different images every week.

Michelle Stevens: 00:11:07

So if you have say seven URLs you're using, then you're just going to be posting one per week, you know, for each day, which spreads it out.

Michelle Stevens: 00:11:18

It also gives you the ability to really have consistent content on the platform without just like constantly being on there creating new pins.

Michelle Stevens: 00:11:26

So I like to do it in bulk, creating three to five at once because it's a time saver and you can schedule it out and it's done.

Felicia Pugh: 00:11:35

That makes so much sense.

Felicia Pugh: 00:11:37

And just having that plan that you're talking about, it makes it feel doable, right?

Felicia Pugh: 00:11:41

Because I know sometimes it can feel like, oh my goodness, I have to do all of these pins.

Felicia Pugh: 00:11:46

How am I going to do it?

Felicia Pugh: 00:11:47

But you're mapping out a simple plan that again, is saving time and maximizing your time, but you're still able to hit that presence on Pinterest.

Felicia Pugh: 00:11:55

Okay, this is getting interesting now.

Felicia Pugh: 00:11:58

So we talked about pinning these different types of pins and they can go to different types of pages.

Felicia Pugh: 00:12:04

But are there certain types of pins that perform better than others?

Felicia Pugh: 00:12:09

Like, I know they have like just the regular, they call it static image.

Felicia Pugh: 00:12:14

But are there other types of pins that might perform better than others?

Felicia Pugh: 00:12:18

And what's your take on it?

Michelle Stevens: 00:12:19

Yeah.

Michelle Stevens: 00:12:20

So as far as performing better, it really depends on you and your audience.

Michelle Stevens: 00:12:25

So the only way you're going to figure that out is pinning multiple types of pins.

Michelle Stevens: 00:12:30

They have video pins now.

Michelle Stevens: 00:12:31

So Pinterest has changed a lot.

Michelle Stevens: 00:12:33

There used to be idea pins and story pins and all these different kind of pins.

Michelle Stevens: 00:12:36

Now you have a static pin, you have a video pin, and you have your infographics.

Michelle Stevens: 00:12:41

So those are your three main pins.

Michelle Stevens: 00:12:44

I have noticed, like, that's a general rule and it's.

Michelle Stevens: 00:12:47

This is not always the case, but video pins tend to do really well for reach and impressions.

Michelle Stevens: 00:12:53

Like, they tend to get more impression.

Michelle Stevens: 00:12:55

Static pins tend to do pretty well for getting outbound clicks to your website.

Michelle Stevens: 00:13:00

And infographics are really savable.

Michelle Stevens: 00:13:03

So when you're thinking infographics, it's usually those pins that have tons of information.

Michelle Stevens: 00:13:08

Oftentimes people don't click through to those, but they will save them to their boards.

Michelle Stevens: 00:13:11

And saves on Pinterest is a really good signal for them.

Michelle Stevens: 00:13:14

So mixing those, you know, saveable pins is good.

Michelle Stevens: 00:13:18

Even though it might not cause that immediate click out to your website, it will help build up your Pinterest account.

Michelle Stevens: 00:13:25

So I like having a mix.

Michelle Stevens: 00:13:26

And then after about 90 days of doing that mix, I would look into your analytics, see what's performing the best for you.

Michelle Stevens: 00:13:33

So if your goal is clicks to your website, you want to see what kind of pins are doing the best to get your clicks to the website.

Michelle Stevens: 00:13:41

Sometimes it will be video pins.

Michelle Stevens: 00:13:43

Like sometimes people have video pins that really kill it for them and it and it gives them a ton of traffic to their website.

Michelle Stevens: 00:13:50

Others, just regular static pins do the best for them.

Michelle Stevens: 00:13:52

So it really just depends on you and your audience and you really just have to track it.

Michelle Stevens: 00:13:58

I always say test and try it and see what works for you.

Felicia Pugh: 00:14:02

Yeah, and I'm glad that you said that because there is no like one right way to do anything.

Felicia Pugh: 00:14:07

And I love that you said it depends on what your goal is.

Felicia Pugh: 00:14:10

Your strategy will depend on what your goals are and what works best for you.

Felicia Pugh: 00:14:13

The way you were talking though, you mentioned a few analytics, maybe you said reach impressions, I think saves and it was something else.

Felicia Pugh: 00:14:23

So can you talk about those a little bit and kind of what they are indicators of or their purpose?

Michelle Stevens: 00:14:30

Absolutely, yeah.

Michelle Stevens: 00:14:31

So a lot of people really get hung up on impressions, which is reach views, that kind of thing.

Michelle Stevens: 00:14:35

Impressions, views, same thing.

Michelle Stevens: 00:14:38

So impressions, what that means is that your pin was shown on that page.

Michelle Stevens: 00:14:42

It doesn't necessarily mean somebody saw your direct pin, but it was on the page available for viewing and that is what impressions is.

Michelle Stevens: 00:14:50

So a lot of people really are like, oh, I want to get to a million impressions, which is great because then, you know, more people are seeing your stuff.

Michelle Stevens: 00:14:58

But it's not what's causing people to click through to your website.

Michelle Stevens: 00:15:02

Outbound clicks means they clicked on the pin and they went to your website.

Michelle Stevens: 00:15:06

They also have engagement, which means you know when you're on Pinterest and say you click on a pin and you read a little bit more, but you don't go all the way through to the website, that's an engagement, which is a positive sign.

Michelle Stevens: 00:15:18

But you obviously want the outbound click.

Michelle Stevens: 00:15:21

So concentrating on having more outbound clicks is going to give you more website traffic.

Michelle Stevens: 00:15:27

Whereas impressions when you're on Pinterest is great.

Michelle Stevens: 00:15:30

If you're trying to get awareness right, you're just trying to get people to know more about your brand.

Michelle Stevens: 00:15:34

It's important, but it's not the thing that's going to take them to your website right then.

Michelle Stevens: 00:15:39

So it's good to have good impressions.

Michelle Stevens: 00:15:41

But help out clicks to me are the more important metric to follow that and save.

Michelle Stevens: 00:15:46

Because if people are saving, if you think about pinners, and I don't know if you're a Pinterest user yourself, you probably have gone on, done a recipe or you got inspo for a new project or fashion or whatever and you're pinning the ideas right because you're going to come back later, say, I know when I was pregnant with my son I pinned a ton of baby stuff and then I'd go back later and look and click through and order whatever I wanted.

Michelle Stevens: 00:16:12

Which is how people use Pinterest.

Michelle Stevens: 00:16:14

They're pinning it to plan and to use later.

Michelle Stevens: 00:16:17

So saves are great too because that means they could go back to your content later.

Michelle Stevens: 00:16:21

So that's why it's such a positive signal for Pinterest is because it's saying, yeah, they're liking it enough to save it to their boards.

Michelle Stevens: 00:16:28

So yeah, those analytics, that's kind of what they mean as far as how you're performing.

Michelle Stevens: 00:16:35

So if you realize you're getting a ton of impressions but nobody's clicking through to your website, then we need to tweak something on that pin.

Michelle Stevens: 00:16:43

Probably a call to action saying click through.

Michelle Stevens: 00:16:46

Or maybe your description is giving away too much and we need to leave a cliffhanger.

Michelle Stevens: 00:16:50

So they need to go through to your website.

Felicia Pugh: 00:16:53

See, this is why you all need a Pinterest strategist in your life.

Felicia Pugh: 00:16:58

I'm sitting here, there's like so many other directions and questions I could ask you right now.

Felicia Pugh: 00:17:03

Because as you're talking, more things seem to come up and it's really, you do need a strategy.

Felicia Pugh: 00:17:09

You can't just pin and you need to analyze what you're doing and review it and see what's working and what's not working.

Felicia Pugh: 00:17:17

The next thing that came to my mind is like, okay, somebody, they're convinced, I'm going to try Pinterest, right?

Felicia Pugh: 00:17:22

I want to test this out.

Felicia Pugh: 00:17:23

I'm going to give it 90 days.

Felicia Pugh: 00:17:25

So as they are, you know, getting their account together and thinking about what they're going to pin, the URLs they're going to send people to, what are some of the things that they should avoid or even just what are some of the common mistakes that you've seen people make when they're starting out on Pinterest?

Michelle Stevens: 00:17:42

Yeah, so I would say the biggest one is they give up too soon.

Michelle Stevens: 00:17:45

So Pinterest, I always say, is a slow burn.

Michelle Stevens: 00:17:48

It's not something where you're going to start posting.

Michelle Stevens: 00:17:51

I mean, people probably have started to post and went viral right away, but that is super uncommon if you're brand new.

Michelle Stevens: 00:17:58

If you have a brand new Pinterest account, give it six months, nine months, maybe a year to really take off and just try to be patient with it and think of it as building a foundation.

Michelle Stevens: 00:18:08

Right?

Michelle Stevens: 00:18:09

You're just building that foundation.

Michelle Stevens: 00:18:10

You're consistently pinning.

Michelle Stevens: 00:18:12

You don't have to take it too serious.

Michelle Stevens: 00:18:14

Kind of monitor your analytics, see what you're doing and try to double down on what works, but really give it that time to grow.

Michelle Stevens: 00:18:21

Because if you've ever, like, if you're a blog writer or something like that, you know, it takes a long time to rank on Google.

Michelle Stevens: 00:18:29

Super similar in Pinterest.

Michelle Stevens: 00:18:30

It takes a while for them to even index your pins.

Michelle Stevens: 00:18:33

And when you're brand new, Pinterest is learning what your account is about.

Michelle Stevens: 00:18:37

So this is going to open a whole new can of worms.

Michelle Stevens: 00:18:40

But your entire profile should have little, you know, breadcrumbs as to what you're all about.

Michelle Stevens: 00:18:45

So you're going to tell them what you do, how you do it, you're going to have keywords within your about section, your board descriptions, all of that.

Michelle Stevens: 00:18:54

And it's really helping Pinterest learn who to put your pins in front of.

Michelle Stevens: 00:19:00

So they really track the behaviors of different people and as they're searching things, they'll start seeing your pins or they're just behaviors on what they're looking up on Pinterest.

Michelle Stevens: 00:19:10

So there's different ways the algorithm works.

Michelle Stevens: 00:19:13

It works search based.

Michelle Stevens: 00:19:14

It also works on the home feed where it's just feeding you things that it thinks that you want.

Michelle Stevens: 00:19:20

So that's why it's so important for Pinterest to understand what your business is about is because that way it can put it in front of the correct people.

Felicia Pugh: 00:19:29

That's good.

Felicia Pugh: 00:19:29

So it's a slow burn.

Michelle Stevens: 00:19:31

A slow burn, yeah.

Felicia Pugh: 00:19:34

Look, that's good to know though.

Felicia Pugh: 00:19:36

So don't go on Pinterest and expecting, you know, 30 days later it could happen.

Felicia Pugh: 00:19:40

Right.

Felicia Pugh: 00:19:41

Nothing impossible.

Felicia Pugh: 00:19:42

But, you know, that shouldn't necessarily be the normal expectation.

Felicia Pugh: 00:19:48

Is there anything that someone might do that'll kind of red flag them to Pinterest?

Felicia Pugh: 00:19:57

Or, you know, how on Instagram, what do they say?

Felicia Pugh: 00:19:59

Shadow banned.

Felicia Pugh: 00:20:01

Is there anything like that on Pinterest?

Michelle Stevens: 00:20:03

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Michelle Stevens: 00:20:04

And that's a hot topic all the time in every Pinterest Pinterest board.

Michelle Stevens: 00:20:07

So you can get caught.

Michelle Stevens: 00:20:09

What they we all call the spam filter.

Michelle Stevens: 00:20:11

Right?

Michelle Stevens: 00:20:12

So a lot of times what happens, and there's a couple different ways, number one, if you're posting pure affiliate links with no disclaimers, you're going to get shut down.

Michelle Stevens: 00:20:19

So please don't do that.

Michelle Stevens: 00:20:21

Pinterest does allow affiliate links, but you have to do it correctly.

Michelle Stevens: 00:20:25

So that's one thing.

Michelle Stevens: 00:20:26

It's best to send them to a blog with the affiliate links in there, but you can post a direct affiliate link.

Michelle Stevens: 00:20:31

You would just have to make sure you put that disclaimer in your pin.

Michelle Stevens: 00:20:35

So it's very, you're very aware that it's an affiliate link.

Michelle Stevens: 00:20:39

So what I've seen people do is they put like 25 affiliate links, you know, in one day, and then they're going to get shut down.

Michelle Stevens: 00:20:46

So if you feel like you're being spammy, you probably are.

Michelle Stevens: 00:20:50

So that's what I always tell people.

Michelle Stevens: 00:20:52

The other thing is, and this actually happened to me once, is it's totally Innocent, Right.

Michelle Stevens: 00:20:58

Like, I had an Etsy shop that I was just trying to get my Etsy products onto Pinterest.

Michelle Stevens: 00:21:03

So I was doing that Pinterest extension where you can pin it to Pinterest.

Michelle Stevens: 00:21:08

Well, I did too many and so it put me in the spam filter.

Michelle Stevens: 00:21:11

Thankfully, I emailed them and they're like, oh, yeah, it's all her pins.

Michelle Stevens: 00:21:14

They let me have my account back.

Michelle Stevens: 00:21:16

But sometimes they don't and it'll just shut down your account forever.

Michelle Stevens: 00:21:21

The other thing that you can see, if you feel like you've gotten a weird spam filter on accident because of a Pinterest update, you'll see your analytics going up and then boom, nothing.

Michelle Stevens: 00:21:34

And that's when I would definitely reach out to Pinterest and see what's going on, because that has happened to people before where they weren't doing anything spammy, they weren't doing anything crazy, and they got caught in that spam filter.

Michelle Stevens: 00:21:46

As a new account, you do have to be a little more careful than like an account that's been active for three years because they kind of learn their cadence and they're not quite as tight on those.

Michelle Stevens: 00:21:56

But people are trying to spam on Pinterest all the time.

Michelle Stevens: 00:22:00

So when you have a brand new account, you're more on like kind of a high alert.

Michelle Stevens: 00:22:03

So you just want to be careful that, I mean, you can hand pin, you know, five to ten pins a day and you're going to be fine.

Michelle Stevens: 00:22:09

Just make sure you're not doing like all the same URL.

Michelle Stevens: 00:22:12

And if you feel like you're being spammy, you're probably being spammy, so dial it back.

Felicia Pugh: 00:22:18

What is the rule of thumb if you feel like you're being spammy?

Felicia Pugh: 00:22:21

You probably are.

Michelle Stevens: 00:22:22

Yeah.

Felicia Pugh: 00:22:23

Okay, that's really interesting and good to know as well.

Felicia Pugh: 00:22:27

So I want to circle back just a little bit because you mentioned it really briefly.

Felicia Pugh: 00:22:30

You said something about boards.

Felicia Pugh: 00:22:32

So can you explain what those actually are and like just the role that they play in the whole Pinterest strategy?

Michelle Stevens: 00:22:40

Yes, absolutely.

Michelle Stevens: 00:22:41

Boards are super important to your Pinterest strategy.

Michelle Stevens: 00:22:44

So with each board, I always think of a board as kind of like a file, file cabinet.

Michelle Stevens: 00:22:50

It's kind of telling Pinterest what is on what's going to be on that board.

Michelle Stevens: 00:22:54

And you want to make sure that when you're pinning to that specific board, it is relevant to that board because that's how Pinterest is learning what your account is about.

Michelle Stevens: 00:23:02

So your boards, how I tell people to really start creating boards if you're brand new is to think, if you're a service provider, what are kind of your content pillars that you use for other social media?

Michelle Stevens: 00:23:14

And can you put those as boards?

Michelle Stevens: 00:23:19

So, you know, for you, you have maybe organization and productivity for malms, you know, different things, right?

Michelle Stevens: 00:23:25

And those are going to be your broad boards.

Michelle Stevens: 00:23:28

So say you have five to 10 of those and it could be less, it could be three to five, whatever.

Michelle Stevens: 00:23:33

And then you're going to take more niche topics within those big broad boards and make boards out of those.

Michelle Stevens: 00:23:40

So if you have a broad board, then you're going to have maybe three other, like, more niche topics that you could that kind of go under that broad board, but they're going to be separate boards completely.

Michelle Stevens: 00:23:53

And that way, when you create a pin that would belong on that broad board, there's more other boards.

Michelle Stevens: 00:23:58

You can pin that same thing too, because you don't want to pin the same URL to the same board every single time.

Michelle Stevens: 00:24:05

You want to spread it out.

Michelle Stevens: 00:24:08

There's a lot that goes into a board strategy, but that's a really broad overview of it.

Michelle Stevens: 00:24:14

So you're going to have here, your boards, you're going to make sure you're pinning to the relevant boards, but have multiple boards that kind of can go for the same.

Michelle Stevens: 00:24:21

Same thing, same.

Felicia Pugh: 00:24:23

That is so good.

Felicia Pugh: 00:24:25

See, now this is the perfect segue because clearly we're going to need some help with our Pinterest because there's lots of little nuances.

Felicia Pugh: 00:24:32

Right.

Felicia Pugh: 00:24:33

So I want you to tell us what it's like working with you and how you support people.

Felicia Pugh: 00:24:37

But can you also share.

Felicia Pugh: 00:24:38

It can be, you know, your own Pinterest story or just one of your clients.

Felicia Pugh: 00:24:43

Just what that's looked like for them from, like, where they started and since they worked with you, what it looks like now for them since they started using Pinterest.

Michelle Stevens: 00:24:52

Yeah, absolutely.

Michelle Stevens: 00:24:54

So I just recently did.

Michelle Stevens: 00:24:55

So I have a service called the VIP Month, and that's for somebody that's maybe not quite ready for Pinterest management, but they really want somebody to help them get going and moving and just kind of teach them how to do it.

Michelle Stevens: 00:25:07

So what that VIP Month is, is I will completely go in, optimize your whole Pinterest.

Michelle Stevens: 00:25:13

We're going to update your boards, we're going to reorganize everything, make sure everything's optimized and good.

Michelle Stevens: 00:25:20

And then I do all the scheduling for you for a month.

Michelle Stevens: 00:25:22

So I do your entire Pinterest schedule as if I was managing your Pinterest.

Michelle Stevens: 00:25:25

Myself.

Michelle Stevens: 00:25:27

So I do the whole strategy, all the keyword research and everything, and then I will take that keyword bank, pass it on over to you.

Michelle Stevens: 00:25:34

But I also schedule out the next couple of months.

Michelle Stevens: 00:25:38

So I have the URLs, the titles, the descriptions, the keywords you're targeting, and then you'll create the creative and do the scheduling yourself for those next months.

Michelle Stevens: 00:25:50

But what I did was I helped someone with a VIP month and because she already had an established account and we just really needed to fine tune some stuff, once we did that, she, she started to right away, actually within that first 30 days, an increase in her outbound clicks, increase in her impressions, increase in all of her saves.

Michelle Stevens: 00:26:10

And she was so happy.

Michelle Stevens: 00:26:11

She was like, can you just finish scheduling the rest of the months for me?

Michelle Stevens: 00:26:14

So then she ended up, you know, being more of a management client than a vip.

Michelle Stevens: 00:26:19

But it's amazing what can happen.

Michelle Stevens: 00:26:21

She had a Pinterest account going, so her turnaround was a lot quicker than you would expect.

Michelle Stevens: 00:26:26

Somebody that's brand new.

Michelle Stevens: 00:26:27

But that was really super exciting to see.

Michelle Stevens: 00:26:30

It just took a few tweaks for her and sometimes that's all it is.

Michelle Stevens: 00:26:34

Brand new accounts.

Michelle Stevens: 00:26:35

I just started working with a tile company.

Michelle Stevens: 00:26:38

I've been working with them for about six weeks now.

Michelle Stevens: 00:26:40

We already got them up to about 12,000 impressions.

Michelle Stevens: 00:26:44

They're getting outbound clicks to their websites, they're getting saves on their pins.

Michelle Stevens: 00:26:48

So that's really exciting.

Michelle Stevens: 00:26:50

And that's a pretty good, that's a pretty good amount for a brand new account.

Michelle Stevens: 00:26:56

That is exciting.

Michelle Stevens: 00:26:57

Yeah, yeah.

Michelle Stevens: 00:26:58

And as far as my account goes too, like it ebbs and flows as, you know, as the years go and as.

Michelle Stevens: 00:27:07

Because I always put mine on the back burner, but it is consistently growing and I'm really starting to see that work that I put in early on is really starting to pay off because I'm seeing a lot more clicks through to my website.

Michelle Stevens: 00:27:20

So Pinterest is definitely one of my biggest traffic drivers to my site and how people find me, along with YouTube because I'm on YouTube also.

Michelle Stevens: 00:27:26

But yeah, so that is, that is kind of how it works for me.

Michelle Stevens: 00:27:31

I love Pinterest because it's like you get to be creative, but you also get to be analytical.

Michelle Stevens: 00:27:35

So it's a good platform as far as that's concerned.

Felicia Pugh: 00:27:40

Those are amazing results.

Felicia Pugh: 00:27:42

So I'm curious though, how did you even start working with Pinterest?

Felicia Pugh: 00:27:47

How long have you been doing it and how did you tap into Pinterest?

Michelle Stevens: 00:27:50

It's funny because I was doing like invitations and I'm selling on Etsy and I was trying to figure out how the heck do I get traffic to Etsy because it's so hard.

Michelle Stevens: 00:28:00

It's a marketplace, but it's hard to really break into that.

Michelle Stevens: 00:28:04

And so I started using Pinterest and that was a good way for me to start getting traffic.

Michelle Stevens: 00:28:10

I started seeing some results from that.

Michelle Stevens: 00:28:13

Um, and then I kind of moved away from Etsy.

Michelle Stevens: 00:28:16

I have my own, I have my own shop and my own website now.

Michelle Stevens: 00:28:20

Um, and I was honestly just looking for ways to eventually leave my nine to five.

Michelle Stevens: 00:28:26

And I heard that you can actually do Pinterest management.

Michelle Stevens: 00:28:28

And I was like, that's perfect.

Michelle Stevens: 00:28:30

Cause I love it already.

Michelle Stevens: 00:28:31

It's already doing a bunch of results for my website.

Michelle Stevens: 00:28:33

So it was a perfect transition.

Michelle Stevens: 00:28:36

So I really just started taking courses and learning more about Pinterest, how to do it, digging in really deep, and then just started building my account and my Pinterest education and using my YouTube platform to educate on Pinterest.

Michelle Stevens: 00:28:51

And then I thought, you know what, I'm going to just see if I can help other people with their Pinterest too.

Michelle Stevens: 00:28:56

And it's been really great.

Michelle Stevens: 00:28:58

And I've been able to work with different people from travel bloggers, food bloggers, service based businesses, coaches, all of those things.

Michelle Stevens: 00:29:06

It's been really fun.

Felicia Pugh: 00:29:07

Oh my goodness, that's so exciting.

Felicia Pugh: 00:29:09

It's almost like you just kind of stumbled into it, but it became like the perfect thing for you.

Michelle Stevens: 00:29:15

Yeah, it's funny, it's, you know, you, you want to become an entrepreneur, right?

Michelle Stevens: 00:29:19

Like I was, I was tired of the corporate world.

Michelle Stevens: 00:29:21

I hate asking for time off.

Michelle Stevens: 00:29:23

I hate like just being beholden to someone else.

Michelle Stevens: 00:29:27

And I started to think during the pandemic, like, my job could be gone tomorrow and I only have one stream of income right now.

Michelle Stevens: 00:29:35

Like, it seems risky to be an entrepreneur, but my opinion is it's just as risky to be an employee because somebody else that has nothing to do with you can tell you, sorry, we don't have a job for you anymore.

Michelle Stevens: 00:29:47

And I saw that happen with so many people through that time and I thought, you know what, I need to do something different.

Michelle Stevens: 00:29:53

So I don't have one of those stories where I just quit my job and started working at my business.

Michelle Stevens: 00:30:00

I don't have that, that ability to do that.

Michelle Stevens: 00:30:02

But yeah, started slow and just kind of worked in and developed exactly what I wanted to become as an entrepreneur.

Michelle Stevens: 00:30:09

And it's been, it's been great.

Felicia Pugh: 00:30:11

Oh, I love that.

Felicia Pugh: 00:30:13

And I'm just excited for you that you found something that really fits what you love to do.

Felicia Pugh: 00:30:18

Like, you're analytical, you know, you like the SEO stuff.

Felicia Pugh: 00:30:22

And Pinterest feels like the perfect matchup for that.

Felicia Pugh: 00:30:26

So this has been super insightful.

Felicia Pugh: 00:30:28

I got lots from it.

Felicia Pugh: 00:30:29

I'm sure the people listening got lots from it.

Felicia Pugh: 00:30:32

And it just has my wheels turning.

Felicia Pugh: 00:30:34

So I know it has their wheels turning.

Felicia Pugh: 00:30:36

So can you let people know how they can connect with you and how you might be able to support them in their Pinterest journey?

Michelle Stevens: 00:30:43

Absolutely.

Michelle Stevens: 00:30:44

So you can always find me on my website.

Michelle Stevens: 00:30:46

That's Michelle Stevens at Stevenson with a v dot com.

Michelle Stevens: 00:30:51

If you don't put the dash in, you're going to get somebody totally different.

Michelle Stevens: 00:30:54

You'll know right away.

Michelle Stevens: 00:30:56

And then I'm also on YouTube at.

Michelle Stevens: 00:30:59

It's@michelle-stevenson YouTube also.

Michelle Stevens: 00:31:02

And I am on Instagram.

Michelle Stevens: 00:31:03

I'm not on Instagram as much as YouTube, but you can find me there at Growing Underscore.

Michelle Stevens: 00:31:08

Michelle.

Michelle Stevens: 00:31:09

And I also, you know, I offer one off services as far as like strategy sessions.

Michelle Stevens: 00:31:15

So if you just need somebody to kind of help you brainstorm ideas and come up with keywords.

Michelle Stevens: 00:31:19

I have strategy sessions, I have Pinterest audits, and I just started offering some coaching with Pinterest.

Michelle Stevens: 00:31:23

So if you really want to dig in and you want to take it seriously and you want some one on one coaching, I have that available too.

Felicia Pugh: 00:31:30

Awesome.

Felicia Pugh: 00:31:31

And all of those links will be in the show notes.

Felicia Pugh: 00:31:34

So go ahead, click away.

Felicia Pugh: 00:31:35

Connect with Michelle again.

Felicia Pugh: 00:31:37

Michelle, this has been so insightful and very interesting.

Felicia Pugh: 00:31:39

Thank you so much for coming on and sharing with us all things Pinterest.

Felicia Pugh: 00:31:44

Guys.

Felicia Pugh: 00:31:45

Thank you for listening and we'll see you in the next episode.

Felicia Pugh: 00:31:49

Thank you for listening to the Mom CEO Suite podcast.

Felicia Pugh: 00:31:52

If you enjoyed this episode, can you do us a favor?

Felicia Pugh: 00:31:55

Leave a review on itunes and share with other moms in business like you.

Felicia Pugh: 00:32:00

Help us spread our message and empower others who are at this intersection of motherhood and entrepreneurship.